Poverty Observed: Journal of a Country Priest
Village priests served as community leaders in a variety of respects, including keeping a register of births, marriages, and deaths. One such curate, the abbé Lefeuvre, also included in his register impressions of life during the severe winter of 1709, which give a sense of the difficult and fragile lives of the poor in rural towns in the eighteenth century.

Two Peasants Repairing a Cart
This image of peasants repairing a cart demonstrates both the hard work done by cultivators and their fragile economic situation, which could easily be imperiled by a broken cart. Under such circumstances, poor people constantly repaired durable and personal goods, such as carts or clothing, because they could not afford to replace them with new ones.

People under the Old Regime
This image shows "the people" as a chained and blindfolded man being crushed under the weight of the rich, including both clergy and nobility. Such a perspective on the period before 1789 purposely exaggerates social divisions and would have found few proponents before the Revolution, but the image does reveal the social clash felt so intensely by the revolutionaries.

Poverty in Auvergne
The difficulty of life in rural regions led some to leave home and seek a better life elsewhere, particularly in the growing cities. Such migration worried some observers, who feared villages would be emptied and no one would be left to work the land. In the excerpt below, a local government official in the Auvergne region comments on the causes and effects of emigration.

Arthur Young Views the Countryside
Arthur Young, an Englishman, traveled across France on the eve of the Revolution recording his impressions of life there, particularly those aspects that seemed to him to compare unfavorably with his native land. In the excerpt below, he comments on the peasantrys landholdings, remarking on the multiple arrangements of land tenure and on the small size of peasant farms, all of which seemed strange to him, because, in England at this time, most of the arable land belonged to absentee landlords who hired others to work their large farms for them.

The Joyous Accord
This allegorical image represents the sentiments of social unity that the National Assembly sought to promote through the Festival of the Federation of 14 July 1790. This festival, though technically but a military parade of units from around the country, also implied to most observers the unity of all orders and classes.

General Federation of the French
This image provides a visual overview of the Festival of Federation of 14 July 1790. Commemorating the fall of the Bastille one year earlier, this massive military parade of troops from all regions of the kingdom converged on a tripletiered triumphal arch where all the soldiers swore an oath to serve the king and the National Assembly. The pageant drew nearly a million spectators and represented the apex of the social, geographical and political unity that reformers and early revolutionaries hoped would solve Frances problems. This festival was a powerful counterpoint to those who believed that the social question ultimately would undermine the Revolution.

Tension between Rich and Poor
The Marquis de Mirabeau, a welleducated nobleman, worried about the migration of French nobles to the cities and the passing of lands into the hands of "new men," wealthy commoners without a sense of paternal obligation toward the peasants on that land. In a 1756 treatise entitled The Friend of Men, or Treatise on Population, he expressed concern about rising tensions between wealthy landowners and poor peasants, which he thought signaled a decline in morality.

The SaintMarcel Neighborhood
The writer LouisSébastien Mercier recorded in his Portrait of Paris detailed and witty commentaries on many aspects of life among the common people. In this article on the SaintMarcel neighborhood, he comments on the difficulties faced by urban workers.

Through Me You Are All Brothers
This image shows the three orders unified by religion. The Virgin standing at right in a cloud holds a cross from which rays emanate to three figures representing the clergy, nobility, and Third Estate. A hooded figure with a serpents tail, representing the dangerous traditionalism of the old regime, clings to the robes of the priest and noble, holding them back from merging with the nation.

Apprentices and Masters
Unlike the Marquis de Mirabeau, (see document Tension between Rich and Poor) Jacques Savary sought to promote commerce and those who engaged in it. In this excerpt from his 1757 edition of The Perfect Merchant, which was widely read, Savary comments on the proper relations between apprentices learning a trade and the masters who owned the shop. Although his views in general were favorable to the chance for personal advancement made possible by commerce, he also retained a clear preference for hierarchy.

Reunion
This piece of crockery further demonstrates the sentiments of social unity so prevalent at the Festival of Federation. The crossed sword, pike, clerical staff, and bonnet symbolize the union of the nobility, peasants, clergy, and workers, respectively.

A Bread Riot
Bread was the basic staple of most peoples diets, and variations in the price of bread were keenly felt by the poor, especially by women who most frequently bought bread in the marketplace. Women would sometimes protest against what they thought to be unjust price increases for bread in what were known as "bread riots." As this excerpt shows, these were not usually violent, nor did they involve looting, but instead were a collective action designed to force bakers to sell bread at a "just" or "moral" price rather than at whatever price the market would allow. This passage is taken from a wellknown chronicle of the reign of Louis XV by EtienneJoseph Barbier.

Awakening of the Third Estate
With the Bastille being destroyed in the background, a member of the Third Estate breaks his shackles. Here, the clergy and nobility recoil in fear, thereby emphasizing the conflict between the estates.

I Was Sure We Would Have Our Turn
Class solidarity was never universal, as this print celebrates the victory of the peasantry over the nobility and clergy. The two defeated orders, linked together to create a horse, support the peasant who with his newly-won freedom, carries the result of a hunt--an activity not legal for commoners under the Old Regime. The peasant also proclaims, “Vive le roi [the King]. Vive la Nation.” This indicates that this was published early in the Revolution, for by 1792, Louis XVI would no longer be popular.

Montesquieus Attack on the Nobility
In his Persian Letters, published anonymously and abroad in 1721, CharlesLouis de Sécondat, Baron de Montesquieu, president of the Parlement of Bordeaux and a noble himself, made a scathing critique of nobility that set the tone for the philosophes attack on the inequality of eighteenthcentury French society.

Oath of the New Horaces
Social discrimination against old regime elites continued in this parody of a famous painting prior to the Revolution, The Oath of the Horatii, by JacquesLouis David which focused on the courage of three brothers who thrust their arms bravely forward to signal their willingness to sacrifice themselves for their country. In this image, three officers recruited from the nobility offer a weak salute, suggesting their irresolute allegiance to the king and a lack of leadership ability.

Voltaires Understanding of Inequality
This passage from FrançoisMarie Arouet, pennamed Voltaire, who was perhaps the bestknown writer of the eighteenth century, illustrates the spirit of investigation of the Enlightenment. The philosophes wanted to understand the rationale behind inequality, were particularly interested if there were natural reasons for it, or if inequality came wholly from social conventions. From a welltodo middleclass background, Voltaire condemned arbitrary inequality and the social conditions that spawned it.

Beaumarchaiss Understandings of Inequality
Like his predecessors of earlier generations, playwright PierreAugustin Caron de Beaumarchaiswho became an important figure of the late Enlightenment because of the controversy surrounding his work The Marriage of Figaro [1784]believed that a truly rational society would not tolerate arbitrary inequality.

We Must Hope That It Will Soon Be Over
A common complaint of rural petitions was the abuse of seigneurial dues owed by peasants to lords supposedly in exchange for protection and supervision. This image demonstrates the view that peasants envisioned their lords not as protectors, but as exploiters who constantly turned the screws on them to extract ever more rent or other payments.

The Traditional Order Defended
This newspaper article considers the question of equality from the opposite point of viewarguing that without social distinctions making clear who should lead and who should follow, society cannot hold together. In particular, the article emphasizes that economic changes such as reliance on the market to set prices undercut older ideas of protection by the elite, shifting notions of social morality.

The Welcoming of a Marquis in Hell
The image points out the destruction of the nobility, depicting the arrival in Hell of a "marquis" and several other "aristocrats," described in the legend as "conspirators" and "traitors."

The Crushed Aristocracy
This image uses the classical figures of an angel and a cherub to celebrate the achievements of Louis XVI on the base of a statue. The words state that he has destroyed the "aristocracy" and established the liberty of the French people. The monarchs action is equated with the other great reminder of national emancipation, the Bastille, seen in the background.

They Had Them Too Long
This image demonstrates the necessity of nationalizing church property. It shows a peasant cutting the fingers off a priests hands; a nobleman cannot bear to watch, but has no qualms about putting on the gloves the clergyman will no longer need. Although the focus is on the clergy, the nobles greed is clearly in evidence.

Abolition of Nobility
The major principle underlying the 4 August decree found legislative expression in the decree of 19 June 1790, which legally abolished the nobility, all its privileges, and, as the excerpt demonstrates, those aspects that seemed particularly contrary to reason.

Departure of the Three Orders for Versailles
Although 14 July 1790 was a high point in the aspiration for unity, the preparation for the EstatesGeneral set the stage for later problems. In this image, representatives of each of the three orders depart together in a cart for the 1789 meeting of the EstatesGeneral at Versailles, where they will advise the King on behalf of the nation. The social differences depicted here and shown in the cahiers would not long remain under control.

Abuses to Suppress
This print depicts the Third Estaterepresented by the peasant at the rear of the chariot, the worker leading the horse, and the merchant drivingdelivering to the National Assembly a petition listing "abuses" to be remedied.

ExNobles Targeted in the PressMilitary Nobility
One of the targets of the left was the officer corps. Recruited from the aristocracy, the military leadership was, of course, suspect. When early battles went poorly, suspicion, justifiable or not, only mounted. Such circumstances led to even more emigration by officers, generating an upward spiral of mutual hostility.

Active Citizen/Passive Citizen
This cartoon mocks the distinction between active and passive citizens. Many revolutionaries hated this difference, essentially dividing those with property from those without. The propertied (active) were the only ones who could participate in the political process.

CahiersA Parish Cahier
The cahiers de doléances ["lists of grievances"] drawn up by each assembly in choosing deputies to the EstatesGeneral are the best available source of the thoughts of the French population on the eve of the Revolution. This excerpt from a parish cahier in the sénéchaussée of AixenProvence demonstrates that popular unrest stemmed in large part from the privileges enjoyed by nobles and by officeholders, and that such offices were not usually open to the most qualified individuals.